To me, customer service is something that should be a part of every customer interaction. Duh! Seth Godin talks about it all the time, but it's stupid-obvious. Except, apparently, when it's not.

Case in point: the other night, my dear wife and I decided to go see The Dark Knight at the Imax place in Ft. Lauderdale next weekend. Long story short: despite the fact that there are links from the Imax website to purchase tickets, this theater's site does not have that capability, nor does it redirect to a third-party handling ticket sales.

For advance ticket sales, you must either personally visit the box office or order by phone. But the phone-ordering isn't 24/7, so I had to wait until the next day and remember to do it within the designated hours.

First Rule of Customer Service: Make it easy to buy your stuff.

If you think customer service is just a mechanism for dealing with screw-ups, you've already screwed up.